Kai Parthy Releases Clear, Flexible 3D Printing Filament

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3D printing materials inventor Kai Parthy has had one small niche missing from his every-growing line of filaments. He may have invented Laywood and Laybrick, resulting in a number of other manufacturers launching their own versions of wood- and stone-like filaments. And he may have released all sorts of spongy feedstock for desktop 3D printing. What he hadn’t quite pulled off, yet, was a line of highly flexible filaments. Today, however, Parthy has added two new flexible filaments to his BENDLAY series.

Complementing his tough BENDLAY filament, created in 2013, Kai has come up with two flexible filaments with a number of unique properties and applications. Kai writes that all materials in the BENDLAY series have the following features: “near glass clear, low water absortion (easy to store), printing at ~ 220° to 240°C, thermal stable as PLA (65 – 70°C), best interlayer adhesion, Soluble in brake cleaner, [and] acetone will make Bendlay crumble.”

According to Kai, BENDLAY can be used for such applications as creating thin-walled, watertight bottles; making squeezable products; and printing shoe soles, straps, and wristbands. In the video below, you can see how the new flexible filament compares to the rigid material in the BENDLAY series:

And, in this video, you can see the rigid BENDLAY’s watertight properties:

Kai tells me a little bit more about why his latest invention came about. He says, “Bendlay-flex was developed, because users asked me for a softer version. We have soft drinks, so we need softer bottles 🙂 They found the clearness wonderful, but the first Bendlay was a little stiff for some applications, for example, soles for bathing shoes. Flex is smoother, useful especially with thin wall thickness. The polymer-blend contains more softener components.”

As for where you can get it, he says, “Bendlay soft is sold as a coil: 0.25 Kg and may be ordered by dealers directly from Kai Parthy / [email protected] For the price I can actually not give a tip, the dealers will decide, depending on theire neccessary margins.” So, keep an eye out! And keep an eye out for what Kai invents next, either through his own brand or taken and rebranded by other companies 😉

Michael Molitch-Hou previously served as Editor-in-Chief of 3D Printing Industry, he is now the Editor of Engineering . com's 3D printing section. He has covered additive manufacturing technology day in and day out since 2012 and has hundreds of article to his credit. He is the founder of The Reality Institute.